Formed as a three piece in 2004 by an American ex-pat, an English born doctor and a country boy moved to the big city, Perth based band Institut Polaire were destined from the start to have a dizzying array of influences. With a palette of sounds ranging from country tinged psychedelia to 60's soundtracks, bubblegum pop to kraut-rock, Institut Polaire are musically schizophrenic; taking little pieces of each genre to create a special blend of their own. Pulling off these ambitious layered wall-of-sound aspirations does take a lot of sonic firepower. As a result, Institut Polaire has grown from humble three piece roots into a full-blown collective who currently number between 7 and 9 members toting everything from vintage Wurlitzer pianos to violins, banjos, trumpets, MacBooks and glockenspiels.
The collective have already shared the stage with acclaimed artists such as Camera Obscura, The Clientele, Architecture in Helsinki, Jens Lekman, Lou Barlow of Dinosaur Jr., Love of Diagrams, New Buffalo, Gerling, Bob Evans, Starky, The Panics and The Lucksmiths.
While** Institut Polaire** may have been short on releases thus far, they haven’t been short on accolades- taking out the prestigious WAM Song of the Year Prize in 2006 for the single “City Walls & Empires”, and receiving generous airplay nationwide.
2007 got off to a flying start when the band were discovered by Triple J, leading to a well received appearance at the annual Big Day Out Festival. This was quickly followed by becoming the first Australian act signed to boutique Sydney label Popfrenzy Records (Australian home of Of Montreal, The Gossip etc) and national tours with Camera Obscura (Scotland) and The Clientele (England).
Institut Polaire released their debut EP "The Fauna And The Flora" on October 2, 2007 to rave national reviews including Single of the Week honours from both Drum Media and Rave street press. They have been added to rotation for (a rare) two tracks on Triple J and garnered wide airplay on community stations around the country. The release was accompanied by an ambitious video for “City Walls & Empires” (see below) filmed at Carriageworks Arts Complex in Sydney.
The band will travel to Melbourne at years end to commence work on their highly anticipated debut full length.
